DURATIOX OF WARRANTY. 488 



would be found to give a warranty of a horse, in 

 futuro. As a remedy, however, against fraud prac- 

 tised at the time of sale, it has been expressly laid 

 down by Lord Loughborough, in the case of Fielder 

 v. Starkin, that no length of time elapsed after 

 a sale will alter the nature of a contract origi- 

 nally false. The following are the particulars of 

 the case : — Starkin sold a mare " warranted sound, 

 quiet, and free from vice or blemish.'' Soon after 

 the sale. Fielder discovered that she was unsound 

 and vicious ; that she was a roarer, had a thorough- 

 pin, and also a swelled leg from kicking. Never- 

 theless, he kept her three months, physicking and 

 using other means to cure her ; at the end of which 

 time he sold her, but had her soon after returned 

 as unsound ; when he passed her back to Starkin, 

 who refused to receive her. On her way back from 

 Starkin's she died, and, upon examination, it was 

 the opinion of the veterinary surgeon that she had 

 been unsound a full twelvemonth before her death ; 

 but it did not appear that Fielder had, during the 

 three months, though in Starkin's company, ever 

 complained of the mare being unsound. Lord 

 Loughborough said — " Where there is an express 

 warranty, the warranter undertakes that it is true 

 at the time of making it. If the horse, which is 

 warranted sound at the time of sale, be proved to 

 have been at that time unsound, it is not neces- 

 sary that he should be returned to the seller. No 

 length of time elapsed after tlie sale will alter the 

 nature of a contract originally false ; though the 

 not giving notice will be a strong presumption 



